Kong Ren, Xu Lei, Piao Lianhua, Zhang Dawei, Hou Ting-Jun, Chang Shan
School of Electrical and Information Engineering, Institute of Bioinformatics and Medical Engineering, Jiangsu University of Technology, Changzhou, China.
College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
Chem Biol Drug Des. 2017 Nov;90(5):753-763. doi: 10.1111/cbdd.12997. Epub 2017 May 12.
Argonaute 2 (Ago2) protein is the major vehicle of microRNAs (miRNAs)-guided gene repression and silencing processes. Although the crystal structure of human Ago2 (hAgo2) has recently been disclosed, the information of dynamically structural character of protein-RNA recognition is still lacking. Molecular dynamics simulations were used to systematically explore hAgo2 in the presence and absence of RNA duplex. Stable direct and water-mediated hydrogen bonds were observed between guide RNA backbone atoms and hAgo2, especially for nucleotides 2-7. In addition, water-mediated hydrogen bonds are indicated to be critical in the specific recognition between hAgo2 and the conserved adenine in position 1 of target RNA. The core domains (N, PAZ, MID, and PIWI) possess rigid body movements during the simulations. The motions of N-PAZ and PIWI-MID are negatively correlated with or without RNA binding and PAZ domain is identified as the most mobile domain in both systems. The reorientation of PAZ domain not only influences the binding of helix-7 and RNA duplex, the initial pairing process, but also the shape of N-PAZ cleft, where the supplemental base pairing occurs. It is speculated that PAZ domain could be a key regulator in hAgo2-mediated miRNA-induced gene regulation.
Argonaute 2(Ago2)蛋白是微小RNA(miRNA)引导的基因抑制和沉默过程的主要载体。尽管人类Ago2(hAgo2)的晶体结构最近已被揭示,但关于蛋白质-RNA识别动态结构特征的信息仍然缺乏。分子动力学模拟被用于系统地探索存在和不存在RNA双链体情况下的hAgo2。在引导RNA主链原子与hAgo2之间观察到稳定的直接氢键和水介导的氢键,特别是对于核苷酸2-7。此外,水介导的氢键被表明在hAgo2与靶RNA第1位保守腺嘌呤之间的特异性识别中至关重要。在模拟过程中,核心结构域(N、PAZ、MID和PIWI)存在刚体运动。无论有无RNA结合,N-PAZ和PIWI-MID的运动均呈负相关,并且PAZ结构域被确定为两个系统中最具流动性的结构域。PAZ结构域的重新定向不仅影响螺旋7和RNA双链体的结合、初始配对过程,还影响发生补充碱基配对的N-PAZ裂隙的形状。据推测,PAZ结构域可能是hAgo2介导的miRNA诱导基因调控中的关键调节因子。